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7:57am

Business and the Economy

Another Big Bridge Project in Louisville

Five companies are vying to build the downtown portion of the Ohio River Bridges Project. Kentucky is in charge of appointing a firm to build a new bridge between downtown Louisville and southern Indiana. The company will also rework Spaghetti Junction. The deadline for applications was this week, and transportation cabinet officials will spend the next few weeks reviewing the submissions.

Because the project is so large, most of the applicants are joint ventures between national and international construction firms. Their applications will be judged on several criteria including experience, price and the inclusion of minority and women in jobs. Later this month, three finalists will be asked to submit formal proposals for building and maintaining the new span. A final bid will be chosen in the fall.

The five bidders are:

Cross River Constructors LLC, a joint venture of Flour Enterprises Inc., Acciona Infraestructuras S.A. and The Lane Construction Company

Choosing a contractor is one of the last steps in building the bridges, but it isn’t necessarily the biggest. The federal government still hasn’t approved the placement of tolls on the existing I-65 span, which is currently necessary to pay for the $2.6 billion bridges project.